Thursday, October 22, 2015

On our way into work this morning my husband, Tom,
was reading an article in The Atlantic about Microsoft founder Bill Gate’s
perspective on climate change when Tom abruptly turned to me and said: I hear so much about the science of climate change but I
rarely hear people tell how it has affected them...on an individual level. I
want to hear about their personal experiences.

Tom enjoying New Zealand's great outdoors

I was astounded
that I hadn’t thought to promote this type of anecdotal climate change awareness on a
more focused level in the ten years I’ve been writing about global warming. (Full
disclosure: for many years I’ve been a “true believer” in the effects of climate
change, as a man-made phenomenon. Tom has always been a keen observer and
skeptic of political/environmental trends but he now agrees wholeheartedly with
me that climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing mankind and we
need to do something about it.)

Well, I got to work—immediately
(as in today). And here's the
start.

I’ve launched a
Facebook page called Witness to Climate Changehttps://www.facebook.com/witnesstoclimatechange/ to
capture in one location as many personal storied of how climate change has affected
You and Me—all of us on an individual level. This is how the story needs to be
told. This is how people learn. Anecdotes of this-is-what-happened-to-me have
guided humanity for millennia and I now feel this should be the focus of a
worldwide climate change awareness campaign I’m calling (like the Facebook handle) Witness to Climate
Change.

Shortly after meeting Prince Charles (I'm snapping a picture in the background)

Back a few years ago, I had the opportunity to meet one of the great climate
change spokespersons (if you will) in the world. I shook hands with Prince
Charles and told him I worked on climate change issues to which he responded, “But is anyone listening?"
to which I replied, "We're making progress. They will listen..."

I hope the Witness to Climate
Change grassroots awareness campaign is an answer so that many more will start “listening”.

Please go to the
new Witness to Climate Change Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/witnesstoclimatechange/ and share your own experiences of what you've seen, lived or how
you’ve been affected by climate change. I’ll choose stories to be promoted on
this blog and my Twitter site @MrClimateChange.

Friday, October 2, 2015

“In the resurrection they neither marry nor are
given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” – Christ Jesus

Dear Pope Francis:

As a baptized and loving Catholic I have worked to thread
my Catholic upbringing into daily living as I have sought to lead a life
with integrity, dignity, and personal success as a natural gay man created by
God as Gay. I have a wonderful loving
husband named Robert who, although not Catholic (I’m working on it), loves God
with such profundity that it was one of the reasons I married him.

My often difficult but blessed personal journey has
occurred while at the same time, throughout the advanced world we all have witnessed,
as part of each generation’s spiritual revelation, a deeper understanding of same-sex
attraction within the human race, as well as the animal kingdom. And are not animals in their simplistic innocent creatures of God? If same sex attraction was not natural,
why did God instill it in a small percentage of his lessor creation?

My Husband and me after the US Supreme ruled that ourmarriage, our devotion and love for each other, wasequal to every other married couple in America. This picture was the lead photo on the Huffington Post'swebsite and was picked up all over the world

I, and others like me, seek to demonstrate that values
such as wholesome living, honor, love and fidelity can be lived while having a
spouse of the same-sex. Millions of us seek to live a life in Christ. As with all people, this walk is often a
challenge, but made unnecessarily difficult by unloving, uniformed, or less
spiritually developed forces which attack and demonize Gay people.

And, we as LGBT Catholics have an additional cross
put upon our shoulders by our own church.Many of us turn in despair to anti-spiritual fronts, often exemplified
by popular culture which often elevates and glorifies baser ways of living, which
many do know, through often tragic personal experience, leads to a spiritual dead end--yet even as this “front” has offered us refuge when the Church has turned against us!

Indeed, this is a challenge calling for great gifts
of discernment.

I too have a concern for the “family”, Pope Francis,
which I agree can be greatly healed by individuals committing to living lives
far more focused on self-less love, and service. Please pray to understand,
though, that physical expressions, depending upon body parts, DO NOT, Pope
Francis, change “fundamental relationships” that you expressed concern about in
the marriage covenant. Rather sexuality,
including Gay sexuality, is truly a mysterious wonder which according to God’s
plan, when property used, can lead to a deeper, richer life in every way.

With our natural sexuality intact we can develop
towards a deeper life in Christ. Many
things threaten all types of family life today, I agree: a culture which too often
degrades or ridicules wholesome values, rather than the transformational power
of love for another. Or others: worldwide economic pressures, self-centeredness,
declining discipline, delaying gratification, a changing socialization which
focuses on short-term versus long-term goals, and many many other
challenges.

This ostracized community of Gay people, especially middle-age elders, can actually offer tremendous insight into how to counter
these corrosive visions within the flock. Holy Father, you can seize this opportunity and actually help by understanding
and speaking compassionately about our rightful place within the body of
Christ!You can speak forth that our
dreams too reflect the dream that Martin Luther King Jr. had that men and women
should be judged by the content of their character, and people who are LGBT
should not in any way be discriminated within the public realm, and this must
be clearly stated in federal law, and throughout the world.

Robert and me at home.

Your Holiness you are actually in concert with
another fellow Catholic, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy. Yes, in removing the splinter from the
Church’s eye, you may see symmetry, mathematical beauty. You reiterated the importance, above all, of
the richness and the beauty of family life, likewise through the movement of
the Holy Spirit, Justice Kennedy affirmed in his ruling regarding marriage
equality that no union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the
highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, and sacrifice, and FAMILY. In forming a marital union two people
(regardless of body parts which soon enough turn to dust) become something greater
than they once were.

Marriage embodies a love that may endure even beyond
death. It would misunderstand these men
and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. We in the LGBT community respect it so much
that we want to be part of it, find fulfillment in it for themselves and proclaim its great value to others.

The loving and equal affirmation of LGBT people, Holy
Father, is human dignity. It is this generation’s spiritual revelation, that I
deeply pray every night that your will ultimately proclaim during your
Papacy.

I know in this life I will never meet with you, Holy Father, to sit down together and share in the spirit of Christ's Love, but in heaven when all is clearly seen, I pray we will see eye-to-eye as brothers of the faith in the most holy council of Our Lord.

I’d like to end this letter with another mention of
my husband. Holy Father you took the name of my most admired saint. Fifteen
years ago when I showed Robert, the film Brother Son, Sister Moon by Franco
Zeffirelli’s he cried. Two weeks before your ascendancy to the Throne of Saint
Peter, Robert told a friend, who had hardened their heart toward our one true and
Apostolic Church, they should watch the film because “Saint Francis of Assisi
was what being a Christian and Catholic means…”

About Me

I am a third generation U.S. Marine, and a professional writer of articles, blogs and humorous columns. Through my historic preservation efforts, I was the subject many national news stories, including ABC World News Tonight (2000), The New York Times (1998/2003), and the BBC (1998/2000). My humorous "Lord Westover" blog was nominated to the Washington Post's "Best Blog Award" by its readers and mentioned in the Christian Science Monitor. I am the co-author of the well-received "S.S. United States – Fastest Ship in the World" (Turner). I work in environmental public affairs on climate change issues. Peter Jennings honored me on an ABC World News Tonight segment called 21st Century Lives (September 7th, 2000) for my efforts to save our national flagship. Both my grandfather and I have been quoted in The Wall Street Journal and highlighted in the History Channel’s “The History of Veteran’s Day” documentary. I'm happily married to Thomas E. Fulton (finally found someone to put-up with me!).